In 2006, a new convert showed up at a mosque in Orange County, California. Known as Farouk al-Aziz, the convert was actually an FBI informant named Craig Monteilh. That informant’s infiltration of the mosque is at the heart of FBI v Fazaga, a case heard at the Supreme Court last month. We return to our episode from 2012, which tells the story behind it.
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Craig Monteilh, photo by Andy Templeton
This is an updated version of an episode from 2012.
Prologue
At a Muslim community center in New York, two lawyers teach a workshop on how to react when an FBI agent shows up at the door asking questions. The workshop is a project of CLEAR — Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility — at the City University of New York School of Law. (9 minutes)
Gym Rat
In the summer of 2006, an FBI official visited a mosque in Orange County, California. His intention was to reassure the community that they weren't being spied on. But a few months later, an undercover informant named Craig Monteilh showed up at the mosque. Monteilh says he¹d been sent there to catch terrorists. But his behavior was so odd that Monteilh himself came under suspicion. Documentary filmmaker Sam Black reports the story. (25 minutes)
Act Two
The story of Craig Monteilh continues: What happens when you turn someone into the FBI who, it turns out, is working for the FBI? Trevor Aaronson, whom Sam Black interviewed for this story, has a book called The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism. (21 minutes)
Related
Act Three: I Am Iraq, I Am An Island
Act Two: Teacher Hit Me With A Ruler
Act One: Damned If You Don't
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